


Open Up

by ShadowoftheLamp



Series: AIP Tallest AU [2]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Dissection, Gore, M/M, Surgery, Tallest Zim AU, Vivisection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:00:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29365140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowoftheLamp/pseuds/ShadowoftheLamp
Summary: Dib makes a deal with Zim: If he lets Zim cut him open, he can continue to see their daughter.It's only fair. Dib did it to her first.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Series: AIP Tallest AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120442
Kudos: 30





	Open Up

**Author's Note:**

> Eh, I decided it's time to finally start uploading some of my au fics over here. They're basically all 'oneshots but take place within a wider plot', but I'll try to pick the ones that stand alone okay with just a few sentences of context in the author's note.
> 
> Twix is the daughter's name if you come across this from not reading my other works. Dib kidnapped her at about age 13/14, found out she was his, and then ended up later returning her after some Bonding, which is where this takes place.
> 
> Oh, and warning for brief mpreg mentions if that bugs you.

Dib thought he’d never be here. Well, he’d kinda figured he might one day- a better way of phrasing it would be that he _hoped_ he’d never be here.

Least of all willingly.

“And you’re _sure_ this won’t kill me?”

Zim scoffed. “Of course I’m sure!”

“You don’t have thumbs, how do I know it won’t slip and slice open my stomach?”

“Dib. I’ve been Tallest for ages and was a scientist before that. I know how to hold a scalpel.” Zim raised an eye before pressing his hand down on the human’s chest, still soaked with a shiny gel that apparently both sterilized and killed pain. He looked even taller from this angle, limbs and torso stretched like putty. There was a mirror hanging above Dib. If he looked for too long, instead of quick darts of his eyes, he could see his own chest struggling not to hyperventilate. He could do this. 

“And there’s _nothing_ else I can do to-”

“You cut open my daughter.” Zim held the scalpel up to the light, squinting at it as if searching for imperfections. “I cut open _you._ Seems a fair trade for continued access to her, no?”

“Hey, she’s mine too!”

“Which is why you agreed to this.” Zim tilted his head. 

Dib squirmed a little. (Twix had squirmed under the light and the blade too. A lot, no matter how tall and bold she'd tried to hold herself with Pak weapons disabled and arms and legs tied.) Dib had told himself she was just a mutant irken and it was fine, that she'd get over it, that the Tallest heir deserved anything she got. He ended up puking when he found out she was not only his, but was just a _kid_ by human standards. Zim clearing his throat brought him back to the present. (Away from the haunted look she'd had as she'd traced up her chest, dark pink blood dripping from between the sutures.)

“Lay your hands down at your sides.” Zim paused. “And shave your under-arms next time. That is absolutely disgusting.”

“ _You_ try finding shaving cream in space,” Dib muttered, but did as he said. As soon as his fists touched the cool space-steel, restraints popped out of the table, and he immediately tugged at them. “Hey!”

“A precaution, to make sure you didn’t change your mind.” Zim grinned, bubblegum teeth the same shade as a particularly poisonous breed of snake Dib had once seen. He set the scalpel down on Dib’s chest. “Relax, human. If I wanted you dead, I would have made it _much_ worse than this!”

“Reassuring,” Dib muttered as Zim began the incision, slicing first through skin. Blood bubbled under the blade, and he ignored it even as Dib swallowed, adam’s apple bobbing. He'd at least knocked Twix out first. “And this won’t make me bleed out because…?”

“You remember that drink I gave you earlier?”

“Yeah, I tried to dump it out and you shoved it down my throat.”

“It had a drug in it to lower blood pressure. You’re welcome.”

“You _drugged_ me?”

“ _You_ drugged Zimtwo,” Zim countered. “It’ll keep you alive. Be grateful, worm.”

Dib forced himself not to wriggle as Zim sliced a horizontal line below his belly button, then reached back up to do the same under his throat. Mercifully, he’d been allowed his boxers, but he couldn’t bite back an involuntary buck up as Zim pried the skin off, clipping it to the table before reaching for scissors.

He could feel… _something_. Not the agony he’d expect, but a deep, dull ache of something being wrong wrongwrongwrong. The sensations were there, but the pain had been snipped at the source, so there were only the motions of Zim slicing through his muscles with the scissors, whistling as he did. He was using both hands- he _was_ pretty adept with them, some far-distant part of Dib’s mind noted.

Then, Zim pried open the muscle layer and Dib saw his own organs moving and nearly puked. The intestines pulsed irregularly, the lungs were pumping in a way that had to be faster than was normal, and the heart was beating tha-thump-thump tha-thump-thump tha-thump-thump. The arteries pumped with it, sending blood out from the heart to the rest of the body. Zim gave the heart a curious poke and it skipped a beat, Dib choking and feeling the skin pulling at the clip. 

“Don’t _do_ that!” 

“What? Is that important?”

“Yes, it’s important!”

Zim’s finger traced down, touching everything. “What about _this_ one?” His spindly fingers scooped up Dib’s stomach, giving it a little squeeze. 

“Th-that one too!”

“Geez, is _everything_ in here important? So many organs… such a waste. Terrible design.”

“Take it up with the manager,” Dib wheezed as Zim started fondling… he was pretty sure that was his spleen? Zim was the only person who had ever (and _would_ ever, with any luck) see this deeply into Dib, view and handle him peeled open piece by piece like a piece of meat. After a minute, Zim went back to the heart. 

“I like this one. It looks funny. What’s it called?”

“The heart.”

Zim tapped on the aorta as Dib slumped back his head and watched the mirror above, trying not to think about how Zim had the power to end his life with a squeeze of his fingers. They looked sharp, all he had to do was dig in a little too hard on the soft organ-meat, and bye-bye Dib, why had he let him do this, _why_ had he-

“Hmm.” Dib was snapped back to reality as Zim pulled back. His fingers were soaked in red by now. “You’re very squishy, Dib-creature.”

“Y-yeah. Comes with the species,” Dib said. “Still kicking, though.”

“Yes, still kicking.” Zim watched as Dib’s heart stuttered as he picked up the scalpel again, grinning. “I could cut into any one of those important organs. No one would know.”

“She would.”

“Yes… but she would forgive me.” He placed the chilled blade against Dib’s heart, the suddenly-frantic beats drumming the organ up and down, up and down, up and down against its potential doom before pulling the scalpel back and setting it aside. “However… I wish to know you more.”

“…Huh?”

“It _has_ been years.” Zim folded the muscle back into place and reached for the clips. “Zimtwo had grown somewhat attached over your time together it seems, even after you sliced her open, and I must admit… I’ve been curious. Impress me, and you’ll live. Bore me, and I make no promises.”

Zim returned the skin to its proper place, using a small laser to seal it. Dib would probably have a burn for years, but he’d take it if it meant he didn’t die today. “Got it.”

Zim turned to wash his hands, and Dib stared up at the mirror as the scalpel hanging off the edge of the table slowly drip-drip-dripped blood from the blade to the floor, red splashing down and staining the white tile. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated, as always!


End file.
